New Games Tagged 'core, adventure, DOS' on The Great Games Experiment New Games on The Great Games Experiment http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/css/logo.jpg New Games Tagged 'core, adventure, DOS' on The Great Games Experiment en-us Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers
]]> 14 May 2008 04:27:40 Quest for Glory 2: Trial by Fire Directly following from the events of the first game, the newly-proclaimed Hero of Spielburg travels by flying carpet with his friends Abdulla Doo, Shameen and Shema to the desert city of Shapeir. The city is threatened by magical elementals, while the Emir Arus al-Din of Shapier's sister city Raseir is missing and his city fallen under tyranny.

After defeating the four elementals that threaten Shapeir, the Hero travels to the city of Raseir. There, he is imprisoned by Khaveen and under hypnosis helps the evil tyrannous wizard Ad Avis to resurrect the evil genie Iblis. In the final fight, the Hero attacks the palace and battles with Ad Avis, who falls to his presumed death begging for assistance from his Dark Master. As thanks for the Hero's success in liberating Raseir and restoring its lost splendor, the Sultan of Shapeir, Harun al-Rashid, rewards the Hero by adopting him as his son.
- from Wikipedia
]]> 22 Apr 2007 07:55:46 Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh In 1996, Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh by Lorelei Shannon was released. Though still enormous in size coming on five separate CDs it was in no way as large as its predecessor.

Dropping the unique adventure game style interaction in favor of an interactive movie format, A Puzzle of Flesh was more expensive to produce and less popular with audiences tiring of video clip-driven games. Though some concluded that it was a substantial improvement over the original in several areas, others dismissed the game, criticizing it for its completely different atmosphere, lack of creativity, interactivity and excessive violence.

The plot of the second game in the series revolves around the character of Curtis Craig, a 30-year-old man working in a company managed by the enigmatic Paul Warner. Curtis' mysterious and traumatic past is a key element in the plot, as he pieces together his experience to form a picture of his soul, one whose discovery might lead to his demise. Harassed by quasi-delusions which seem all too real, Curtis aims to uncover the truth about his family, co-workers and most importantly, his own existence. As his delusions become more and more real and begin to have an enormous, terrible impact on his surroundings, Curtis must confront his fears or risk getting devoured by what lives within him.

A Puzzle of Flesh has a fairly standard interface, with the cursor shaped into the distinctive logo of WynTech

Source: Wikipedia entry
]]> 14 Apr 2007 12:48:40 Phantasmagoria Made during the height of the "interactive movie" boom in the computer game industry, Phantasmagoria is notable for being one of the first adventure games to use a human being as an on-screen avatar. Actress Victoria Morsell spent months in front of a bluescreen filming the hundreds of actions players could direct her character to perform. The game was released on seven CDs to accommodate the massive amount of video generated by this process. Today it still stands as a record of sorts for the largest number of media cuts used in a game, though several other games including an adventure game based on The X-Files television series have matched it in the sheer number of CDs used. However, if it were to use modern day video compression codecs while keeping the same resolution, the game could probably have shipped on as little as one or two discs. On the other hand, however, the seven discs were used to highlight the seven days, during which the story takes place - the game could easily fit about five discs, even without the advanced video compression. Also, it is worth mentioning that large portions of data were repeated on each CD, to avoid disk swapping when playing the game.

The game script was about 400 pages long, four times the size of a regular movie script, and an additional 100 pages of storyboards set the style for the over 800 scenes in the game. The game required four months of filming alone and over 200 persons were involved in the production, not counting the Gregorian choir of 135 persons that was used for parts of the music in the game.

Source: Wikipedia Article
]]> 14 Apr 2007 12:45:09 Quest For Glory: So You Want to be a Hero "Quest for Glory: So You Want to be a Hero" is the first game, and a
]]> 11 Apr 2007 05:04:40 Lightspeed It's finally happened. Man dumped one too many barrels of toxic waste, and now the planet is an ecological wasteland. The population has been forced into space on enormous Conestoga-class interstellar transports while the search goes on for a new planet to call hme.

That's where you come in, with your simple task: fin humankind a new habitable world. It all happens in "Lightspeed", an interstellar simulation from MicroProse.

"Lightspeed"'s actio nrevolves around your Trailblazer-class scouting ship. No subcompact, this jewel sports a hull 3400 meters long and 2960 meters wide. You can even tailer its configuration to your needs, rearranging components to enhance your defenses, armament, or drive.

By:
MICROPROSE SOFTWARE
180 Lakefront Dr.
Hunt Valley, MD 21030
(800) 879-7529
  • Old address and telephone number.
    • ]]>     08 Apr 2007 09:56:01     Eye Of The Beholder 2: The Legend Of Darkmoon In the sequel to Eye of the Beholder, the Archmage Khelben summons the Heroes of Waterdeep, slayers of the Beholder Xanathar, for another mission. Strange things are happening in the forests near Waterdeep, centered around the Temple Darkmoon. People have been disappearing and shallow graves containing human remains have been found. Khelben teleports the party to the forests near Darkmoon so they may find out what kind of evil is working in the towers of the temple.

    Eye of the Beholder II is, like its predecessor, a first-person role-playing game based on the 2nd Edition AD&D rules. It uses the same point-and-click gameplay mechanics and controls as the first game, with only minor changes.

    A starting party consists of four characters, which can be transferred from the earlier game or created from scratch. Characters can reach higher levels and learn new spells, must face new and tough monsters and solve multiple puzzles. Compared to the first game, many more illustrated NPC encounters and cutscenes were added.
    ]]>     29 Mar 2007 05:29:46     Troll's Tale Troll's Tale is an adventure game created by Al Lowe (Leisure Suit Larry, The Black Cauldron). An evil troll has hidden the treasures of the Dwarf King, and it is up to you to get them back!

    Each screen featured a graphic and a menu of decisions. If you find the treasure, but the troll is on the screen at the same time, you would not be able to pick up the treasure.
    ]]>     19 Mar 2007 02:19:17     Hillsfar Hillsfar is an early attempt at the RPG genre from SSI, who went on to produce the infamous Gold Box series. It's a quirky game, light on RPG aspects, and consisting of action-oriented sub-games. Moby games has this to say:

    Play a would-be-hero in the City of Hillsfar where action and adventure await the daring adventurer. Join the local guild and complete missions from your guild master in the quest for glory and gold!

    Hillsfar is a "Single-Hero" RPG (in comparison to other RPGs by Strategic Simulations Inc. where usually control a group of characters). A combination of 1st Person Perspective (when travelling in the city of Hillsfar) and 3rd Person Perspective (usually in some mini-action quests) viewpoints, Hillsfar is quite introduces a different breed of RPG gameplay than other standard Advanced Dungeon and Dragons RPGs.

    As a would-be-hero, you can choose one of the available classes in a randomly generated mission-based style plot: Thief, Mage, Fighter or Cleric. Each class to a certain extent have different approaches on how to complete a certain quest.

    In Hillsfar, gameplay usually consists of various "mini-games" that are needed to complete a certain quest or mission provided at the local guild by your guild master.
    ]]>     07 Mar 2007 04:34:16     Might and Magic 2: Gates to Another World An old-school CRPG in which you control a party of heroes who can freely explore the large world and engage a multitude of beasties in good ol' turn-based combat.

    From MobyGames:

    The Sequel to the successful Might and Magic I, it boasted better graphics, a larger world, but still pretty much the same game engine and presentation. Embark on a glorious journey then save the world of CRON and yourself.
    ]]>     07 Mar 2007 02:04:07     Space Quest V: The Next Mutation Roger Wilco is a cadet and janitor at the Starfleet Academy. However, he cheats his way through the aptitude test and becomes the captain of his own ship. He is the newest captain of the SCS Eureka, a garbage scow. Roger explores space looking for trash, and eventually comes across a toxic disease that is spreading through the galaxy. You need to help roger save the galaxy and get the girl in the end.

    Space Quest V was not designed by the full "Two Guys from Andromeda" team who did the original four games. Instead, only one of the two, Mark Crowe, was involved. The humor in this episode was different than that of the past games.
    ]]>     22 Feb 2007 06:47:34     Dune Dune, by Cryo Interactive, was the first attempt of making a commercial game based on Frank Herbert's Dune universe.

    Dune blended adventure with economic and military strategy, and is considered by many the most immersive Dune computer game. Loosely following the story of the novel, the game casts the player as Paul Atreides, with the ultimate goal of driving the Harkonnen from Dune, while managing spice extraction, military, and later, ecology through the native Fremen tribes. As the player progresses, his troops are equipped with weapons from "krys knives" to atomics, tap into Paul's latent psychic powers, and get acquainted with such characters from the book as Chani and Liet Kynes.

    The game, seen always through the eyes of Paul, is a mix between RTS and adventure gaming. While the basis of the game is the strategy component, dialog between characters and a linear plotline give the game more depth than most strategy games. The player is also required to do some miniquests involving talking to characters and traveling to locations, which adds a small adventure game element.



    (loosely edited text from wikipedia)
    ]]>     13 Feb 2007 06:52:47     Death Gate Two thousand years ago the Sartan split the world into five realms, with one race in each realm. Your character, Haplo, happens to be of Patryn who were banished to the deadly Labyrinth.

    In Death Gate you are tasked by Lord Xar to retrieve the pieces of the World Seal. Xar wants to use the pieces to undo the split of the five realsm and have revenge on the Sartan.
    ]]>     10 Feb 2007 06:38:23     Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny Imagine a world of intense beauty and mortal danger where your slightest move can trigger cataclysmic events, miraculous escaped or lethal battles. See magical cities rise out of great oceans. Enter the mysterious caverns of the Dracoid ruins. Discover gruesome altars and witness secret ceremonies never before seen by humans. This is the world of Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny.

    Set in a reactive environment, this real-time, role playing/adventure game features animated 3D high resolution graphics developed by Westwood Studios.

    This incredible world is now ready to be discovered. The question is, are you ready for it?
    ]]>     09 Feb 2007 06:49:30     Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
    I thought I'd killed the Ghost Pirate LeChuck for good. Wrong. How many times can that bloated old fool die? Other pirates tell me there's no escape. "When LeChuck wants you dead, you're dead", they say. Legend has it that the treasure of Big Whoop holds the key to great power... I must find it before LeChuck finds me.

    -The Memoirs of Guybrush Threepwood: The Monkey Island Years
    ]]>     06 Feb 2007 04:45:44     The Secret of Monkey Island
    I cursed my luck again as I slid down the monkey's throat. Have my dreams of guzzling grog and plundering galleons been reduced to this. "Three small trials and you're a pirate like us." Fair enough. If only I could stomach the foul brew these scurvy seadogs swilled, the rest would be easy. How could I have known I'd meet a powerful and beautiful woman with a jealous suitor too stupid to realize he'd been dead for years? And how can I crawl through this great stone monkey to find a man who walks three inches above the ground and sets fire to his beard every morning?

    -The Memoirs of Guybrush Threepwood: The Monkey Island Years
    ]]>     06 Feb 2007 04:24:31     Fade to Black Fade to Black is the sequel to Flashback, again letting the player control Conrad B., the hero from Flashback. Instead of the side view that Flashback had, Fade to Black features third person 3d gameplay, not unlike Tomb Raider (and in fact, this game predated Tomb Raider by a year).
    ]]>     06 Feb 2007 04:35:08     Flashback The year is 2142. You play as Conrad B. Hart, a man who has lost his memory. After barely escaping from hostile aliens, Conrad's bike crashes on an unknown planet. Conrad finds himself in the jungle, and from now on his quest for survival and his lost identity begins.
    ]]>     06 Feb 2007 03:49:44     Albion Storyline

    In the year 2227, the gigantic, interstellar space ship Toronto reaches a distant planetary system. The ship's owners, a huge corporation, believe that there are rich deposits of raw materials on the third planet of the system. The data which describes the planet as a desert, however, turns out to be forged. Albion is a world full of life, secrets, surprises, and magic. When Tom Driscoll, the pilot of the reconnaissance team discovers this, he swears to save Albion from Toronto's tentacles.

    Gameplay

    Albion is a fantasy role playing game. The gameplay has the basic statistic and level system most RPGs of its time had. To level up, you defeat monsters in battle and gain experience. The non-battle portions of this game are mainly puzzle and conversation based, so there are very few "Give X to get Y" puzzles. You can have up to six characters in your party, led by Tom Driscoll, the only character who stays with you through the entire game.

    Battle System

    The Battle System in Albion is turn-based and takes place on a six-by-six grid similar to a board game. You choose, at the start of each turn, an action for each character to perform: Attack, Move, Cast magic, Use Item, or Flee. There is also an 'Advance Party' option to move all enemies towards you one square. The area in which your characters can move is limited to the bottom two rows. If you have a weapon (or two, in the case of the Iskai) equipped, you can attack. If not, you cannot attack unarmed, unless you are choosing Siobhan.

    Navigation

    Albion is one of the few role playing games of its time to use a hybrid system for the navigation of the maps and dungeons. In most parts of the game, the maps are depicted in 2D overhead mode, with full mouse and keyboard control. You can move the party 'train' around with the keyboard and select items to interact with the mouse (so long as you are in fair reach of them). When there are mazes, corridors or even some dungeons, the map is represented in ray traced 3D, akin to Wolfenstein 3D. You can still move around with the mouse and/or the keyboard and select items to interact with using the mouse. Some players find this 3D mode off-putting, but thankfully it is in shorter densities than the detailed 2D maps.

    Conversations

    Conversations in Albion are handled in two ways: Set Topics and Keywords. The Topics usually signify something you can specifically ask that person, for example the leader of a tribe about an object that only he knows about, or a shopkeeper to show you his or her wares. Keywords are more dynamic and may yield different results to different people. You learn keywords for a particular town by speaking to people about common topics, and gradually you will learn all there is to know in the game just by speaking to people. For example, you can learn some of the native language and culture, some superfluous knowledge about who likes whom, and what kind of drink is preferable.

    (Taken from the Wikipedia)
    ]]>     01 Feb 2007 06:49:12     Heart of China
    From the breathtaking splendor of 1930 Asia, three strangers are about to set forth on an adventure that will span an entire continent. She is the daughter of a ruthless American land baron, facing death somewhere in the lush mountains of central China. He is a down-on-his-luck pilot with only three days to rescue her. Their guide to freedom is a shadowy master of stealth and cunning from a far away land. Together they will travel the crowded streets of Honk Kong, cross the blinding snowfields of the Himalayas and ride in the fabled Orient Express... all on a journey of life, love and death that could only begin in the Heart of China.
    ]]>     30 Jan 2007 04:23:38     The Adventures of Willy Beamish Welcome to the terminally cute, seriously warped world of Willy Beamish. You'll face neurotic yuppie parents, teachers pushed over the edge, a ghostly grandfather back from the grave, the baby-sitter from hell, a pet jumping frog on steroids and a plot to blow the city's sewer system sky high. It's chaotic, it's juvenile, it's definitely deranged and you're gonna love every minute of it.
    ]]>     25 Jan 2007 06:06:08     Prince of Persia The Grand Vizier Jaffar has thrown you into a dark dungeon and plans to marry the girl of your dreams in an hour. You're not going to let that happen are you? Try to escape from the dungeon, take out Jaffar's guards, find your way through the sultan's palace and defeat Jaffar himself. Now go, you've got 60 minutes!

    Prince of Persia is a 2D action-adventure / platformer with run & jump gameplay. Avoid deadly traps, solve some puzzles and engage in sword fights. The player has an infinite amount of lives but has to restart at the beginning of a level each time he dies and must complete the game within an hour. An especially noteworthy aspect of the game is the very fluent animation of your character.

    from the (Moby Games Price of Persia page)
    ]]>     24 Dec 2006 08:39:15     Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds takes place one year after the events of Ultima VII: The Black Gate. To celebrate the defeat of the Guardian, Lord British invites the Avatar and his companions to his castle. However, in the night of the feast the Guardian attacks again, encasing the castle in a giant gem of blackrock. Deep in the sewers of the castle, another blackrock gem is found, created as an aftereffect of the attack. This gem is a teleporter to other worlds controlled by the Guardian. Now you, the Avatar, must travel to these worlds in order to free the castle from the Guardian's spell.

    This sequel to Ultima Underworld plays almost exactly as the original, with its 3D world, action-oriented combat, and magic and dialogue systems. The storyline is more connected to the main Ultima series and the game world is larger and has more variety: besides the usual castles and dungeons there are such diverse locations as an ice world, a totally alien place called Talorus and the enigmatic Ethereal Void. Graphics and sound have also been improved: the size of the viewing window has been increased, there are all-new monster graphics and the game now features digitized sound effects.

    from the (Moby Games UW2 page)
    ]]>     24 Dec 2006 07:00:00     Quest for Glory 3: Wages of War The third game in Quest for Glory series is set in the Africa-like world of Tarna, where you travel with your new liontaur friends you have met in the second game. Shortly after your arrival, you learn about the conflict between the liontaurs and the neighbor Simbani village, populated by the leopardmen. It is now time for our hero to become a skillful diplomat and to prevent an upcoming war between the two nations.

    The gameplay system of "Wages of War" is the same as in the two previous games. The game plays like an adventure, with puzzles to solve and characters to talk to, with the additional of RPG elements: combat (action-based) and character development. You can play as either a fighter, a thief, a mage, or a paladin, and raise your skills directly after battles or by performing various actions. Graphics and interface underwent a major change. This is the first 256-color Quest for Glory game, and the first one to utilize the new, icon-based interface.

    (from the Moby Games QFG3 page)
    ]]>     05 Dec 2006 11:32:14     Planetfall After the fall of the Second Galactic Union in 1716 GY, a ten-thousand-year dark age settled upon the galaxy. Interstellar travel was non-existent, and many star systems descended into a near-barbaric state, buring coal and gas for energy, and growing food directly from exposed topsoil.

    In 11,203 GY, a treaty between the Empires of Tremain and Galium formed the Third Galactic Union. Ships of the Stellar Patrol (a pseudo-military wing of the Union government on Tremain) began exploring the galaxy, searching for the human civilizations that are the remnants of the Second Galactic Union.

    You are a native of the planet Gallium. Although it is one of the most politically powerful worlds in the Union, Gallium is no garden spot. In fact, the Gallium Chamber of Commerce brochure entitled "Ten Great Reasons to Visit Gallium" ends on page 3. The author ran out of reasons after listing just two.

    For five generations, your family has served in the Stellar Patrol. Your great-great-grandfather was a High Admiral and one of the founding officers of the Patrol. It was taken for granted that when you came of age you would join up.

    Now, more than a year after signing up, and two months after being transferred to the S.P.S. Feinstein, you are still only ranked Ensign Seventh Class. You superior officer, Ensign First Class Blather, has been making your life miserable. You're begining to wonder if you're really cut out for the Stellar Patrol...
    ]]>     28 Nov 2006 02:39:20